A RESTAURANT owner has been fined £2,000 for using lamb in a duck curry dish.

Anwar Hussain had been advertising a new duck balti on his menu at Godalming Tandoori, Guildford magistrates heard on Monday, but he was caught out when an official from Surrey County Council’s trading standards department arrived at the High Street restaurant for a random test.

Prosecuting on behalf of the county council, Matthew Pascall said the officer had ordered some pilau rice and the so-called duck balti from the takeaway menu on March 19 last year, and gone to collect it half an hour later.

“She [the official] paid for the dish, and then identified herself as being from the trading standards department and said the meat would be removed for analysis,” Mr Pascall said.

“The man serving her, who was in fact the defendant’s son, admitted that the duck dish was actually made with lamb and that there were what he called ‘alternative reasons’ for this. He was then cautioned, and he said ‘I cannot get it [duck] from the wholesalers'.”

Mr Pascall said Hussain had been in Asia visiting his elderly father at the time, but when he returned he was interviewed by trading standards officers.

“He was given two opportunities to prove that duck had been purchased and that a mistake had been made on this occasion alone,” Mr Pascall added.

“Unfortunately he has been unable to provide written, documentary evidence to prove that duck was actually being purchased at that time.”

Defending, Nick Williams said that the father of four, of Woodlands Avenue in east London, was an honest man with a good reputation in Godalming, who had been suffering stress since the investigation began.

“On the day in question, the chef was not on the premises either and so he [Hussain’s son] was dealing the assistant,” Mr Williams said.

“The usual position is that if the customer orders something that is not available that day, an alternative is offered. That clearly did not happen here.”

Mr Williams added: “It is not the case that my client was advertising something he never stocked, there was just no duck that particular day, and an error was made in supplying something else in its place. Orders written in the waiters’ notebooks prove that there was duck.”

Addressing the court, Hussain added: “I would like to express my remorse for the whole situation. Even though it did not take place under my watch, I take full responsibility for what happened.”

Hussain admitted false representation of the dish, and was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £2,307 towards the costs of preparing the case and £15 into a fund for victims.

Sentencing him, court chairman Roger Broad said: “In deciding our punishment we have noted your standing in the community, and that you have been running this restaurant for some 22 years.

“Your reputation has put you in good stead here, and I hope that you can now put this matter behind you and move on.”